Friday, March 23, 2012

Some Fridays Are Better Than Others

I only had to work a half-day today, which was good.  I woke up this morning with an upset tummy and a nagging headache, which was bad.

On my way to work this morning, I heard "These Days" by the Foo Fighters on the radio, which was good.  Traffic was really terrible, which was bad.

My morning at work was relatively quiet, which was good.  My headache got worse, which was bad.

On the way home, I stopped at Cracker Barrel to pick up a take-out lunch I'd called in from the office before I left, which was good.  When I got there they couldn't find my order and I had to wait for them to fix it, which was bad.

I made another stop on the way home at Office Depot and found a nice little laptop stand at a reasonable price, which was good.  My headache continued to get worse, which was bad.

My last stop on the way home was at the post office, where I picked up a package containing my new laptop docking station, which was good.  Traffic downtown was really, really heavy, which was bad.

When I arrived home, my take-out lunch was still warm, which was good.  My headache was so bad by then that I was fairly nauseous, which was bad.

After lunch I hooked up the docking station, and it worked like a dream, which was good.  Right now I'm in the recliner with the laptop hooked into my large monitor, keying this entry on a wireless keyboard, all of which is good.

Yup, the good outweighs the bad.  It's a good, good Friday.

Hope yours is good, too!

Friday, March 16, 2012

It's Been a Good Day

It's race weekend in my little corner of the world.  For those of you who don't happen to live in a town with a NASCAR track, let me tell you that race weekend changes the way things go in your town.

Bristol is a very popular track on the NASCAR circuit; it's a short track, and that makes for interesting racing.  There are a lot of fans who prefer short track races, and Bristol always draws a good crowd.

Having said that, I will mention that we don't get the sell-out crowds we used to get.  Times are hard, and the state of finances in the nation have taken a toll on ticket sales.  Still, there are lots and lots of extra people in town this week, and it's interesting trying to get around right now.

I was off work yesterday and today; I had some compensatory time that I needed to take before it expired.  I lost most of yesterday to a round of some sort of crud that made me headachy and mildly nauseous.  I thought at first it might have been allergies, since everything around here has burst into bloom with the unseasonably warm weather.  It didn't feel like allergies, though; it felt viral.  *YUCK*

But this morning I awoke feeling much better, thank goodness.  I met a friend for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom.  It was my first visit there, and I highly recommend it.  I had a calzone that was just wonderful.

After lunch I went to Best Buy in search of a laptop docking station.  Why do I even try to look for something there?  I've been in there three different times now and have never found a single solitary thing I was looking for!  Oh, well.  I'll go ahead and order one online like I thought I'd do in the first place.  Then I went to Target to pick up a few things; as usual, I found a lot more things that I actually needed, but got some good buys all the same.  After I left there, I went to Sugar Hollow to look over their campground.  I still want to go to Grindstone, but thought it would be good to take a look at a campground nearer home in case I needed it.  I then made a quick stop by the bank to pick up a little money. 

As I was leaving the bank, I witnessed a car accident.  There's nothing as sickening as that horrible crunch of metal hitting metal. Without going into too much detail, one vehicle hit another in the driver's door.  The driver who was hit in the door appeared to be unconscious.  I felt very helpless, but saw that others were coming to his aid, so I left.  Such a terrible thing!  I certainly hope he wasn't badly injured.  There was nothing about it on the local news this evening, so I hope that's a good sign.

I was a little rattled after seeing that and decided I needed to get out of the car for a few minutes.  I pulled into the parking lot at Sam's Club and went in for a little while to walk off my shakes.  I wound up finding a few items I needed, so the stop served two purposes.  In a short while I felt much more settled, so I drove home using the back roads and avoiding all the extra traffic.

I'm always glad to be home, but home looked especially good this afternoon.  Except for witnessing the accident, it's been a good day.

I hope your day has been good, too!

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

My Computer Croaked!

Adios, dear Dell desktop computer.  Okay, first and foremost, this is not a complaint.  It really and truly isn't.  I'd had my Dell desktop for several years (seven or eight, I really can't remember), and it was a replacement for an older Dell desktop.  They both served me well, and my losses when they croaked are nobody's fault but my own.

Losses, you ask?  Being spoiled by years of faithful service, I got lazy about backing up my stuff.  Photos, videos, correspondence.  All gone.  Not once, mind you, but TWICE.  Dumb.  Just plain dumb.

Here's how the latest loss came about.  Last Friday terrible storms rocked my little corner of the world.  The storms were not as severe as those of April 2011, but there was a confirmed F1 tornado in nearby Lee County last Friday.  As a precaution, I had turned off my Dell desktop.  Keep in mind that this computer was rarely turned off.  It ran happily at a desk in the corner of my bedroom, only occasionally being rebooted due to the eccentricities of Microsoft Vista.

On Saturday following the passing of the storms I realized I needed to turn the computer on to pay some bills and e-file my taxes.  I pushed the power button.  Nothing happened.

A brief wave of nausea ran over me.  Oh, man, how long has it been since I saved my photos?  How many episodes of Knitting Daily and movies from Turner Classic Movies had I not yet burned to DVD?

I fiddled a bit with the computer, doing the few techie tricks I know, to no avail.  So now, the computer sits temporarily beside my bed, unplugged and mourned.

I still had my little Acer netbook, so I wasn't completely out of touch with my online world, but I knew that was a temporary solution at best.  I shopped online for a replacement for my beloved Dell and had settled on a Dell laptop that happened to be on sale.  I didn't order it right away, though, because I had to be out of town for a training session for a few days.

On the first day out of town, my coworkers and I dropped in at Staples to look around.  (We don't have a Staples nearby, so we wanted to see if we found any bargains.)  There I found a heckuva deal in a Toshiba laptop.

So here I sit, tapping away at a new personal computer.  Now all I have to do is try to remember all the useful stuff I had bookmarked on my Dell.  I'll hang onto the Dell, of course, and try later to get it up and running long enough to rescue all the items I hadn't backed up, but there's no huge rush on that.  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this new toy.


I am a happy woman.  :-)

Friday, March 02, 2012

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

My little corner of the world is currently under a tornado warning for the next half hour.  We're under a tornado watch until 11:00 pm.  Eeeeek!!

This has been a very unusual season so far.  We don't usually have this sort of weather for at least another month, so everyone in my area is a little on edge.  Last April several areas very nearby were completely devastated by a tornado, and everyone here has very strong memories of that terrible night.

I don't mind thunderstorms....in fact I enjoy them, to tell the truth.  High wind, however, is another matter altogether!  The approaching storm "is capable of producing golfball size hail and destructive straight line winds" according to the National Weather Service.  I've seen golfball size hail.  I have no interest in seeing it again.

According to the local news, the storm is headed our way very shortly, so I'm going to log off now.  I don't like being on the computer during a thunderstorm.  Be safe, friends!!